The main theme
of My Antonia is Jim Burdenís fascination with Antonia as she represents
two things: first, she represents an alternative to his life as a middle-class
boy. She breaks out of the boundaries of class and gender with seeming ease while
he is constrained within them.

Second, Antonia represents a close tie to the
land. Jim loves the land, but is able to give it up for the successes of the city,
while Antonia is happiest when closest to it.

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Minor Themes

The minor theme of the novel is the changes in the Midwest
as it undergoes European-American colonization. Jim Burden approves of these changes
and even makes his living from them.

MOOD

The dominant mood of
My Antonia is nostalgic. Jim Burden, the character-narrator, is writing
about his childhood on the prairie. He is of a romantic bent and tends to cast
all his childhood experiences and all those who played a part in them with a romantic
glow. The reader is informed in the introduction that Jim presently lives in New
York and is unhappily married. Therefore, his nostalgia for his past perhaps contains
within it the longing for having made different choices.